THE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, there really is
nothing for me to say. I want to thank the previous speakers, each
in their own way, for what they have given and what they will give to
the children of our country. I believe that Secretary Riley is not
only the longest serving, but the most intensely committed and
effective Secretary of Education this country has ever had.
(Applause.)

I thank the Vice President for the vivid picture he
painted for us of what is going on in these school buildings. We
have been out there. We have been in these buildings. We have seen
them. I believe the largest number of trailers or temporary
classrooms, or whatever the politically correct term is, that I have
seen at one school is a dozen -- in Florida. But they're everywhere.
And there are a lot of magnificent old buildings in our cities that
any person would be proud to go to school in if only they were fixed.

I'd like to thank Senator Daschle and Congressman Bonior
and all the members of Congress who are here whom they have
represented today, for a genuine, consistent, passionate commitment
to education that I have seen over my six years as President. It has
never failed. (Applause.)

Thank you, Kathryn Scruggs, for giving your life to the
education of our children, and from the look in your face and the
lilt in your voice, I'd say it's been a good gift both ways. Thank
you so much. Thank you. (Applause.)

I want to thank all the educators who are here, Arlene
Ackerman, our friends from the AFT and the NEA and the other
education associations. And I thank the young children for coming
today for reminding us what this all about, welcome. (Applause.)
We're glad you're all here from Stevens Elementary.

Let me begin where I meant to end: we can do this. We
can do this. This is not an insurmountable problem. We have the
resources; what we need is the will and the consensus. We need open
minds and open hearts.

Yesterday I was privileged to announce to the American
people that our nation has triumphed over an enormous challenge. The
red ink of the federal budget deficit has been replaced by a surplus.
We have brought order to our fiscal house; now it is time to bring
more learning to the schoolhouse. (Applause.)

In the end we needed a bipartisan consensus to pass a
Balanced Budget Act that also had the biggest investment in the
health care of our children in a generation and opened the doors of
college wider than any act since the passage of the G.I. Bill.
That's what we need now.

Think of the challenges we have overcome as a people in
the last six years. The crime rate has gone down to a 25-year low.
The welfare rolls are at a 29-year low. It's the first time in 29
years we've had a balanced budget. The unemployment rate is at a
28-year low. The home ownership rate in this country is at an
all-time high.

We are capable of overcoming challenges that people used
to wring their hands about just a few years ago. But we have to put
the progress of our people over partisanship and politics. So we all
came here -- let me join the chorus and say we came here not to ask
for much from the majority in Congress, just one day -- one day for
our children and their future; one day between now and the end of
this congressional session to strengthen our public schools, to
provide those 100,000 teachers for the smaller classes, to build or
repair those 5,000 schools, to provide those after-school and summer
school programs to help our students meet higher academic standards.

In recent days Congress has given us a glimmer of hope
by passing a higher education bill that includes our initiatives on
higher education, that will help millions of Americans receive the
college education they need to compete in the global economy the Vice
President so vividly described. It reduces the cost of student loans
and provides for mentors for middle school students who can get a
guarantee that they will be able to finance their college education
if they stay out of trouble, stay in school, and keep learning.

I applaud the Congress, members of both parties who did
this, including many who are here today. Congressmen Goodling and
Kildee and Clay; Senator Kennedy and his Republican colleague,
Senator Jeffords.

But though we have the finest system of higher education
in the world and this is a good bill because it opened the doors to
it even wider, we all know we have to have the finest K through 12
system of education in the world and it has to be there for all of
our kids as we grow increasingly more diverse. We know that nothing
else we can do will more profoundly expand the circle of opportunity,
more directly enhance our economic competitiveness, more clearly
bridge the divisions of our society and bind us together as one
nation.

And yet no issue has suffered more from misplaced
priorities and partisan pursuits than America's public schools.
Eight months ago I sent Congress the education agenda that has been
described today. It demands accountability from everyone. It says
to students: we expect you to meet high standards of learning and
discipline, but we want to give you the help you need to meet those
standards. It should be bipartisan in its appeal.

There was a time when education was completely
bipartisan because no one asked you to register by party when you
sign up for school, because every American, even Americans that have
no children in our schools, have a direct, immediate, and profound
interest in the success of our children's education.

Now, it is not to late. There is still time before the
end of this session of Congress to spend that one day so we can cast
that one vote to transform public education, to reduce the class
sizes by adding 100,000 teachers -- goals Senator Patty Murray and
Congressman Bill Clay have been fighting for; to build or modernize
those 5,000 schools across those countries -- goals Congressman
Charlie Rangel and Senator Carol Moseley-Braun have worked for hard
for, for a long time now.

The plan also would connect all of our classrooms in
these new or renovated buildings to the Internet by the year 2000 and
train teachers to use the Internet properly and to train our children
to do the same. Every school in this country should be as modern as
the world our children will live in. One day, one vote, could make
it happen.

The third thing we want to do on that one day is to help
our students meet higher standards; and if they're in troubled
neighborhoods or come from difficult families or have school systems
that haven't been performing well, we know they could be helped
immensely with summer school and after-school programs -- programs
that Senator Barbara Boxer and Congresswoman Nita Lowey have been
spearheading our fight for.

I have seen the benefits of these programs all across
America. Last week I visited a school in Chicago where all the
students came from the, I think now famous, housing project of
Cabrini Green. Students in Chicago no longer advance to the next
grade unless they can pass tests to demonstrate that they know what
they were supposed to learn. But if they have trouble passing the
tests, they are not branded failures, because the system has failed
them. Instead, they are offered academically enriched summer school
and after-school programs. Over 40,000 children now get three hot
meals a day there. The summer school is now the sixth biggest school
district in the United States. And guess what? In that school I
visited in Cabrini Green, the reading scores have doubled and the
math scores have tripled in three years. (Applause.)

We only ask for one day for these initiatives -- and,
oh, by the way, one day for a decent appropriations bill. That's the
job that Congress is supposed to do every year. (Applause.) And we
are depending upon the leadership of Senator Tom Harkin and
Congressman David Obey to see that we get that kind of appropriations
bill. The one the House has passed does not meet that test.

Let me tell you a little about it. It shortchanges our
youngest children in Head Start, our new initiatives in higher
education for mentoring children, and preparing quality teachers. It
shortchanges these after-school care programs. It shortchanges our
major education program to help children learn the basics. It
shortchanges my Hispanic education action plan. It shortchanges our
efforts for school reform and high standards and our commitment to
hook all those classrooms up to the Internet by 2000. It even
shortchanges our efforts for safe, disciplined, drug-free schools.
It shortchanges our young people in school-to-work efforts. It
shortchanges workers who need retraining between jobs. It
shortchanges our efforts to help disadvantaged youth get jobs. And
in the House, unbelievably, it completely eliminates the summer job
program for half a million young people.

That is wrong. As your President, I will not stand for
it. (Applause.)

The men and women who are up here with me stand ready to
work with people in the other party and they only ask them to do it
for just one day -- to strengthen our public schools for an entire
new century; to affirm the bedrock American value that every child,
regardless of race or neighborhood or income, deserves the chance to
live up to his or her God-given abilities. Just one day to put in
place a plan that will not only help those children, but in so doing
will make sure that America's greatest days lie ahead. I think it's
worth one day, don't you?